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Zurich Quiz, Part 2

Last week we went to town to try and find some Zurich trivia answers. There were too many - so we had to come back this week! Also I needed to take my car to the shop.Q: how much is a "Kurzstrecke" (2km = 1.24 miles, typically 5 - 6 stops) if you are in possession of a "half fare card"?A: CHF 2.20

Q: What banks can you see at Paradeplatz, Zurich's heart of the financial district?

A: Credit Suisse, UBS, HSBC, J. Safra Sarasin, Julius Bär

Q: What airlines do have an office at Talstrasse?A: Gee, now that was a flop! In the late 80s, early 90s there were PLENTY! So many that to me Talstrasse was like the airline aisle of the city! On today's tour we learned that they have disappeared. All of them! We did find Emirates Airline at Gerbergasse, around the corner, and Air Prishtina and Singapore Airlines at Löwenstrasse, also not far.

Instead we found restaurants, more banks, clothes shops, phone providers and a flower shop.

Then we got hungry and went for some sushi.

Q: How old is Globus, the prestigious department store, and what's the name of their mascot?

A: The lady who works at the information booth didn't know. "We had an anniversary a couple of years ago" she remembered, "therefore it must be more than 100 years old." Colin insisted she found out who old exactly, and she actually called somebody who told her "1896". That's 119 years old. Wow!

Meet Globi, born 1932! Originally a giant stuffed animal, he advanced to the main character of many books and CDs, some of which have even been translated.

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Welcome back to 20 Days of Chill. Today's prompt is #Hashtag, and I thought I'd find out about the top 20 most popular hashtags on Instagram (Source: Huffington Post)

That is pretty generic if not lame! I think the only one I've ever used is #happy, actually it was #100happydays.

Of course I am intrigued now. How do I figure out my own most popular hashtags? Good thing I know people who know stuff. A blogger friend recommended Union Metrics, an app that analyzes just about anything you want to know about your Social Media Accounts! What day and time is best to post, who your biggest fans are, the post with the most likes, the post with the most comments,...

Unfortunately the free part of the tool only teases you, and you end up subscribing...

Surprise, recurring themes / hashtags were most popular. And this is what I paid 29 bucks for? Note: cancel account, get free one, like Iconosquare:

Welcome back, to the letter G of this year's A-Z challenge! We spent yesterday in Florence, Italy from where it's just a 6+ hours' train ride to G is for Geneva, Switzerland.

Geneva is in the French part of Switzerland, therefore you're crossing the "Röstigraben". What's that?

Literally it means hash brown ditch, and I can't believe there's a contribution on Wikipedia!

We commonly use the expression to point out the language gap. In the larger part (63%) of Switzerland we speak Swiss German. The Western part on the hash brown map is the French speaking part of Switzerland, about 23%. And of course it's not just a question of language, but also of culture and political votings.

There's a lot of stereotypes that one group of people says about the other. The Swiss Germans say that the Swiss French are on the lazy side, don't feel like taking orders or keeping deadlines, are chaotic and unreliable. Plus their language is really impossible.

I'm sure there are lots of tutorials out there, videos even. So I'll be quick.

Here's what you need: A plate A disposable plastic bowl, the size you want your igloo to be A disposable plastic cup for your igloo's entrance A bag of miniature marshmallows A lemon A sh**load of powdered sugar Patience

This is how it's done: Cut 1/3 off your cup, place it on the plate. Cut the shape of your "entrance" in your bowl, use some tape to fix

Squeeze your lemon, just use a couple of drops and mix them into the powdered sugar. You want a thick consistency. Now start building! Dunk your mini marshmallows into the sugar/lemon icing and basically build your way around and up your plastic structure!

The marshmallows are really forgiving. They allow another one to squeeze inbetween them if necessary! To be honest I expected this edible craft to end up at CraftFail like so many others of my projects. Hey, I am happy to reaport that this one turned out just fine! :-)